The Cloud of Unknowing

Rating:
Summary: worth having two works in one volume....
Review: ....even though (as said below) the print quality is shameful. This makes a good companion to Merton's CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER and St. John of the Cross's DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL. Anonymously written by a contemplative who really understood how to pray.

Rating:
Summary: worth having two works in one volume....
Review: ....even though (as said below) the print quality is shameful. This makes a good companion to Merton's CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER and St. John of the Cross's DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL. Anonymously written by a contemplative who really understood how to pray.

Rating:
Summary: Emotionalism
Review: Are we to approach God without the hindrance of theology? Are we to love God without the constraints of doctrine? May it never be! The Truth will set you free. Not warm fuzzy feelings. True theology is the study of who God is, not what man thinks. There is an issue there yes, but how are we to love something or someone we do not know? I'll tell you how, we cannot! To try to love God apart from the Truth as set forth in His Holy Inspired Inerrant Word is heresy and you are not loving the God of the Universe but the God of your imagination. I believe the Scriptures show that we are to aim for the heart, yes, we are to aim for the affections, yes, but we are to aim for the heart through the head. Can knowledge puff up? Yes. Does it always? No. Does scripture teach us to abandon doctrine because some misuse it for their selfish gain? No, if this were so Paul would not have exhorted us to, "Stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults (mature)." And in Hebrews we are exhorted to move away from elementary teachings of God and Christ and move onto maturity. I must state yes that we are to love our brothers as we love ourselves, nay even more so, but we must also love truth. Christ said, "I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life." It is the rock solid unchanging truth of God's Word (all the the theology and doctrines that come with it) that we are to ground our faith, not the ever changing relative emotions of the heart. The emotions of the heart are given to us as a response to the truth, never to be used apart from the truth of God's Word. So I am left to say that we are to speak the Truth (doctrines and theology) in love. May you be blessed. Grace peace love.

Rating:
Summary: Emotionalism
Review: Are we to approach God without the hindrance of theology? Are we to love God without the constraints of doctrine? May it never be! The Truth will set you free. Not warm fuzzy feelings. True theology is the study of who God is, not what man thinks. There is an issue there yes, but how are we to love something or someone we do not know? I'll tell you how, we cannot! To try to love God apart from the Truth as set forth in His Holy Inspired Inerrant Word is heresy and you are not loving the God of the Universe but the God of your imagination. I believe the Scriptures show that we are to aim for the heart, yes, we are to aim for the affections, yes, but we are to aim for the heart through the head. Can knowledge puff up? Yes. Does it always? No. Does scripture teach us to abandon doctrine because some misuse it for their selfish gain? No, if this were so Paul would not have exhorted us to, "Stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults (mature)." And in Hebrews we are exhorted to move away from elementary teachings of God and Christ and move onto maturity. I must state yes that we are to love our brothers as we love ourselves, nay even more so, but we must also love truth. Christ said, "I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life." It is the rock solid unchanging truth of God's Word (all the the theology and doctrines that come with it) that we are to ground our faith, not the ever changing relative emotions of the heart. The emotions of the heart are given to us as a response to the truth, never to be used apart from the truth of God's Word. So I am left to say that we are to speak the Truth (doctrines and theology) in love. May you be blessed. Grace peace love.

Rating:
Summary: Tremendous But a Very Bad Printing
Review: Five stars if the printing had been better! This work is invaluable, however I would recommend buying a copy by another publisher because this edition is so poorly printed it is at times almost unreadable. Such a shame to have published this without care.

Rating:
Summary: Transformative
Review: I have an earlier printing of this so I don't have the print quality issues. This is the best book on religious contemplation I've read. It helped change the way I think about God. A good deal of thinking is necessary to get anything from this work, but it is definitely worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Transformative
Review: I have an earlier printing of this so I don't have the print quality issues. This is the best book on religious contemplation I've read. It helped change the way I think about God. A good deal of thinking is necessary to get anything from this work, but it is definitely worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Good Text Bad Paper
Review: I very much enjoy this book and its guidance on how to do contemplative prayer (meditation). It was written in English rather than Latin by an anonymous author and mystic who was probably doing spiritual direction for the original recipient.
Both included texts are excellent. This book is well worth its purchase price.

Rating:
Summary: A 14th Century English Mystic's Guide to Contemplation
Review: I very much enjoy this book and its guidance on how to do contemplative prayer (meditation). It was written in English rather than Latin by an anonymous author and mystic who was probably doing spiritual direction for the original recipient.
Both included texts are excellent. This book is well worth its purchase price.

Rating:
Summary: For those who love prayer...
Review: If you are following a way of prayer, you really should read this book. It is considered foundational to much present-day teaching on Christian meditation and prayer. Although it was written for a monk in 14th-century England, this good translation by William Johnston makes it very accessible.
Is this book for everybody? No, and the author starts right out by saying so. If you don't care about nurturing your relationship with God in deep prayer, if you have no experience of spending time in God's presence, and don't want to, then you should forget about this book! But, if you want to grow in prayer and experience God in your heart and yourself in God's heart, this is written especially for you.
Review by Janet Knori, author of Awakening in God